But Life is Father of us all
(Dear Father, if we knew!)
And underneath eternal arms
Uphold.  We’ll mock the false alarms,
And trample on the neck of pain,
And laugh the dead alive again,
For Life is Father to us all,
And thanks are overdue!

If Truth were what the learned say
And envy called the tune
Mayhap ’twere trite what treason saith
That man is dust and ends in death;
We’d slay with proof of printed law
Whatever was new that seers saw,
If Truth were what the learned say
And envy called the tune.

But Truth is Brother of us all
(Oh, Brother, if we knew!)
Unspattered by the muddied lies
That pass for wisdom of the wise—­
Compassionate, alert, unbought,
Of purity and presence wrought,—­
Big Brother that includes us all
Nor knows the name of Few!

If Love were what the harlots say
And hunger called the tune
Mayhap we’d need conserve the joys
Weighed grudgingly to girls and boys,
And eat the angels trapped and sold
By shriven priests for stolen gold,
If Love were what the harlots say
And hunger called the tune.

But Love is Mother of us all
(Dear Mother, if we knew!)—­
So wise that not a sparrow falls,
Nor friendless in the prison calls
Uncomforted or uncaressed. 
There’s magic milk at Mercy’s breast,
And little ones shall lead us all
When Trite Love calls the tune!

Naturally, being what we were, with our friend Monty held in durance by a chief of outlaws, we were perfectly ready to kidnap Miss Vanderman and ride off with her in case she should be inclined to delay proceedings.  It was also natural that we had not spoken of that contingency, nor even considered it.

“We never dreamed of your refusing to come with us,” said Will.

“We still don’t dream of it!” Fred asserted, and she turned her head very swiftly to look at him with level brows.  Next she met my eyes.  If there was in her consciousness the slightest trace of doubt, or fear, or admission that her sex might be less responsible than ours, she did not show it.  Rather in the blue eyes and the athletic poise of chin, and neck, and shoulders there was a dignity beyond ours.

Will laughed.

“Don’t let’s be ridiculous,” she said.  “I shall do as I see fit.”

Fred’s neat beard has a trick of losing something of its trim when he proposes to assert himself, and I recognized the symptoms.  But at the moment of that impasse the Armenians below us had decided that self-assertion was their cue, and there came great noises as they thundered with a short pole on the trap and made the stones jump that held it down.

At that signal several women emerged from behind the hanging blankets —­young and old women in various states of disarray—­and stood in attitudes suggestive of aggression.  One did not get the idea that Armenians, men or women, were sheeplike pacifists.  They watched Miss Vanderman with the evident purpose of attacking us the moment she appealed to them.